Unionists should look South for buffer against SF

EFFORTS to broker agreement among political parties in the North, in my view, are stumbling inexorably towards collapse and, all things considered, this need not necessarily be the worst possible outcome.

Any agreement that is hammered out would only serve at present to paper over cracks. Most likely it would amount to a re-run of the previous occasion when the Assembly and Executive were functioning.

Constant injections of political support from one or other, or both, governments would be required to keep it all propped up. The main political forces on the nationalist side see in it merely a stepping stone towards some form of united Ireland — precisely what form is deliberately left vague for the time being.